Attorneys at Sandberg Phoenix represent long term care and senior living industry throughout the Midwest and have a long history of litigating and winning cases concerning all areas of professional liability claims and representing clients before administrative and regulatory bodies. Committed to sharing their knowledge and insight with the people who need it most, the Long Term Care and Senior Living Blog addresses current topics and issues of vital importance to the senior living and long term care industries.

Recently, the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel met at its Biennial meeting in New Orleans on March 10th and March 11th. A panel of experts met to discuss the terminology and evidence related to end-of-life wounds and skin failure issues. You may have heard of the terms that are sometimes used to describe end-of-life wounds,…

As a helpful reminder, clients need to be aware that the March 1, 2017 deadline for reporting 2016 HIPAA breaches is fast approaching. March 1, 2017 is the Deadline for Reporting 2016 HIPAA Breaches Affecting Fewer than 500 Individuals by Covered Entities to the OCR. Click here for a link to the OCR portal to…

Don’t let your clients get caught paying a “big” settlement for failing to report a HIPAA breach! For the first time, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has announced a HIPAA settlement with a provider who failed to provide a timely breach report. Presence Health, a health network serving Illinois with approximately 150 locations, including…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has unveiled two new websites for consumers that include information comparing rehabilitation facilities and long-term care facilities. CMS says that these websites are optimized for mobile use. The sites are located at medicare.gov/inpatientrehabilitationfacilitycompare/ and medicare.gov/longtermcarehospitalcompare/ By Jonathan W. McCrary

The past few weeks have been busy ones for the Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard Long-Term Care and Senior Living team as we have collectively analyzed and blogged about each of the revisions to the federal nursing home regulations. These revisions to 42 CFR 483(B) are the first comprehensive updates since 1991 and address the…

Implementation Date: Phase 3 – November 28, 2018¹ This is a new section which sets forth training requirements, requiring a facility to develop, implement, and maintain an effective training program for all new and existing staff, persons providing service under contractual arrangements, and volunteers, consistent with the respective roles. Section 483.70(e) sets forth the assessment…

Implementation Date: Phase 3 – November 28, 2019 This is a new section developed in response to a mandate under the Affordable Care Act that requires the operating organizations of skilled nursing facilities to have a compliance and ethics program that is effective in preventing and detecting criminal, civil, and administrative violations and in promoting…